Phuong Hoang Cave

At the head of the Bắc Sơn mountain arc, a limestone range rises in six peaks that stand side by side. Under them lie a cave and a stream, and both carry names that people like to explain. The cave is Phượng Hoàng, and the stream is Mỏ Gà. They are in Phú Thượng commune, in Thái Nguyên province.

The Nhân Dân newspaper records what local people say about the names. The name Phượng Hoàng is tied to a legend of a pair of phoenixes. The name Mỏ Gà comes from a story of a chicken cage that floated out of the stream after a great flood. These are folk tales, not history. They are the way a community explains a familiar place with images from daily life, and they are a real layer of the culture here.

The limestone itself made both the cave and the stream. Phượng Hoàng Cave lies above, and Mỏ Gà Stream runs out from below. The water is clear and cool. As the press sources describe it, the water flows out from inside the mountain, or from underground channels. In the dry season the stream is small, and in the rainy season the water rises. That is the rhythm of limestone and water.

Phượng Hoàng Cave is not only a beautiful cave. It is a place where history left its mark. The Nhân Dân newspaper records that on November 27, 1944, French forces surrounded the area and then attacked it. Inside the cave were 373 families, 150 young men and 75 guerrillas. They held on under the command of the National Salvation Army, Unit 2. 373 families, inside a single cave.

The cave was recognized as a national historic site and scenic spot in 1994. So a visit here is both a walk through nature and a visit to the place where one chapter of the resistance left its mark.

Inside, local sources describe masses of stalactites that people have named for the shapes they suggest. There is a kneeling elephant, a mythical qilin, a mother carrying her child, a writing-brush tower, a dancer, a bell and the wings of an eagle. This is how people look for familiar forms in nature, and each person can see something different in the same block of stone. Stalactites grow very slowly, and a single centimeter can take centuries or longer to form. Every strange shape is the result of a span of time longer than any history that people have written down.

The cave and the stream also lie within the Thần Sa and Phượng Hoàng nature reserve. The reserve is in Võ Nhai and is a forest of limestone mountains with an ecosystem of its own.

At Phượng Hoàng Cave and Mỏ Gà Stream, nature and history meet in one place. The limestone and the stalactites tell a story millions of years long. And the November day of 1944 tells the story of ordinary people who sheltered inside the mountain to survive the most dangerous days of their time.